Whether you’re seeking to advance your career or grow your business, making progress toward your goals can come down to your ability to enlist the help of others—often through activating one’s personal power bases. Perhaps you need to ask for a raise or a promotion, or maybe you need to request funding to kick off an exciting new project or cover the cost of new hires. Whatever the case, understanding how to get others on board is critical to achieving the outcome you’re hoping for. But if you’re low on the totem pole or just beginning to establish your fledgling business, asking others to reward you with money, time, or increased responsibility can feel like a David vs. Goliath scenario.

Don’t underestimate yourself, though: you may have a lot more personal power than you think. A person’s power bases are the sources from which they draw credibility, influence, and character, traits that can be assets when asking others to help your cause. Power bases can come in many forms, and you may have more than one effective power base to draw from. You simply need to learn how to identify your power bases and use them to your advantage. By recognizing the sources of your power, you can feel more confident as you ask for the things you need to achieve your goals.

Personal Power Bases You May Not Realize You Have:

1. Physical Power: Some people have an effect on others using nothing more than their physical presence. People who are very tall, muscular, or physically imposing, possess the power to inspire or motivate others simply through the space they occupy. If a giant, hulking wrestler tells you to get moving, you will!
2. Resource Power: Power isn’t always about who you are. Sometimes, power can come from what you have access to. Obviously, political candidates who have access to large sums of money can be more influential than those who have no advertising budget at all. Resource power can also come from the people you know. Actors and aspiring directors in the Hollywood system have recognized that it’s all about “who you know” for decades. Knowing the right people or having the right insider information can be a game changer. As you create your strategy for growth, you should consider which relationships you may be able to lean on to give you an edge.
3. Position Power: We all know that the boss is the one in charge. Position power comes from having authority over others. But you don’t have to be the CEO to exercise position power. Having seniority in your role at an organization, for instance, could be a source of position power.
4. Expert Power: Having a specialized college degree, a unique set of skills or experience, or knowledge specific to a role or project could offer you expert power you can use to your advantage. Expert power encompasses your qualifications and you may possess more expert power than you realize. As you seek out the things you need to take your career or company to the next level, think about the expertise and knowledge that will be valuable assets and boost your chances of success.
5. Personality Power: The reputation you’ve built for being an honest, hardworking, leader might also be a factor in your ability to influence others. Personality power comes from one’s character. It’s easy to see how people with natural charisma can capture the attention of a room and inspire others. By the same token, even if you’re not a superstar, aspects of your personality might offer huge advantages as you seek to grow your career or business. Perhaps you are extremely friendly and likable, or maybe you can tell a good joke. These same character traits that make you easy to get along with might also make you an appealing job candidate or business partner. Don’t forget to call on your sparkling personality when it’s time to impress others.
6. Information Power: This kind of power comes from what you know or information that only you have access to. An example of information power might be someone who has gathered a large amount of valuable data through research of some kind. Consider those white papers companies use to gather prospects for their businesses. Companies know that readers and potential clients will want access to the information they’ve gathered, so they use that information power to request customer contact information in exchange for that data. What valuable information might you have that you can offer in exchange for the opportunities or funding you’re looking for?
7. Reward Power: People who have the power to reward or bonus someone else have this kind of power. A manager has the power to promote an employee who performs well, or a parent can reward a well behaving child with extra spending money or a trip to Disneyland. When you are a customer, you have the power to reward companies, products, and salespeople by giving them your business. While trying to grow your business, you can use your power to reward your employees to incentivize them to push even harder to help your company reach its goals.
8. Network Power: Remember all that time you’ve spent shaking hands and collecting business contacts? Building a strong network has boosted your power to influence, because you can now call on those connections to support you in any number of ways. Clients can provide testimonials that will add credibility. Mentors can offer valuable advice to help you overcome challenges, or a connection might call you first when an opportunity arises to submit a proposal. Your network power is one of the sources of power you can most easily grow and impact, so don’t overlook the importance of building strong relationships.

Recognizing your personal sources of power is critical to your ability to collaborate with others and ask for the resources and opportunities you’ll need to grow your company and advance your career. It’s easy to underestimate oneself and overlook how much you have to bring to the table. Success in business requires constant negotiation, and by understanding your own power to get others on your side, you improve your chances of achieving the results you’re hoping for and reaching your goals.

Who doesn’t want to be more influential? People who are influential can drive others to accomplish more and achieve goals, they can inspire action, effect change, and transform people and organizations. Influential people are powerful. They command attention and they garner respect. Being influential means that what you say and do matters, because it sets the tone for others who will strive to follow in your footsteps.

1. Improve your Skills: To build influence with others, you must first master your own skills. People want to learn from people they believe have expertise, experience, and valuable knowledge to impart. Wielding influence requires an ongoing focus on self-improvement, growth, and polish. It’s not enough to just be good at what you do; those with the most influence are great.
2. Take on a Challenge: Consider taking a leadership role at a non-profit, where employees are working on a volunteer basis. If you can motivate and get results from people who aren’t driven by the promise of money or success, then you are truly a strong leader.
3. Become a Great Listener: Being influential isn’t just about speaking; listening matters too. People get excited about leaders who take a genuine interest in them, make them feel important, and who support their goals. Show those you hope to influence that they matter, and they will be more likely to care what you have to say.
4. Build your Reputation: There’s no shortcut to achieving consistent results, but if you want to be able to influence people, you’ll have to establish a proven track record of success. Model the behavior you hope to encourage in others to boost your own credibility as a leader.
5. Learn How to Paint a Picture: To communicate in a way that moves others to action, you’ll have to find a way to make your message easily understandable for all. Use descriptive language and clear examples that help your audience fully understand why what you’re saying is true. Start with a story that engages your audience. Use metaphors, analogies, and real-life anecdotes to help to support your argument and drive home your point.
6. Amp up your Energy: People are like mirrors. We often match our own energy, attitude, and enthusiasm to that of the person we’re communicating with. When attempting to influence people, get yourself psyched up and sell every statement you make like it’s the most important point anybody has ever heard. If you don’t seem excited about it, why should your audience be?
7. Learn how to Build Bridges: People come from a vast variety of backgrounds and sometimes incompatible belief systems. Being influential and bringing about change requires the ability to connect with a diverse audience and encourage open communication and collaboration between divergent groups and individuals. Sometimes, influencing people is about helping to change their way of thinking to facilitate collaboration between individuals with conflicting views.
8. Be Confident: If you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t possibly expect to make others believe in you. Portraying confidence is key to giving the impression that you are someone worth listening to. It’s normal to doubt yourself sometimes, but if your goal is to become more influential, it’s important to never let them see you sweat. Come to speaking events well-prepared, and practice breathing techniques to sooth your nerves. People who convey self-confidence naturally give the impression of being knowledgeable, authoritative, and competent.

You don’t have to be a billionaire or a genius to influence others. Influence is about moving and motivating others through effective communication. Anyone can build influence by focusing on the way they present themselves and how they deliver their message.  Becoming an influential leader is about much more than getting your way. It can make you an invaluable asset to a business by helping to unite teams, get employees on board with new projects, earn investments, realign thinking, and strengthen partnerships. By practicing the tips above, you may be surprised by your own power to move others to action, and no matter your goals, being more influential is a critical step toward becoming an effective leader and getting things done through and with others.

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Communicating in a clear and effective way is always important, both in real life situations and especially in business communications. We converse so much that we often forget to stop and think about what we are saying. When communicating in a professional context, you need to be aware of the little nuances that are held in your words and actions.

Here are some tips for becoming an influential communicator:

Have a clear goal and benefits for all parties.

Transparency is important. The worst thing that could happen is having your conversation be misunderstood. Therefore, you will want to make a clear goal when talking with a client, or potential client. It also helps to make sure that you frame your message in a way that presents the benefits for that party.

With that said…

Know your audience.

Your audience is whomever you are communicating with. Who are they? What do they want? How do they speak? What do they know? Understanding your audience is incredibly important because it provides you all the information you need to tailor your communications to be the most effective for that specific person or group of people.

Knowing your audience makes it less likely that you will waste time explaining things that are already known, glossing over important details that you assume are understood.

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Be sure to ask the right kinds of questions

Learn to strategically drop “leading questions” that prompt longer answers than “yes” or “no.” This will help guide your conversation in a productive direction.

Ask important qualifying questions to ensure that your leads will turn into a prospect. Largely, you’ll be asking questions that are focused around answering these key questions: Can and will you be able to authorize on the sale? What can I do for you to close on this sale?

Naturally, you should take information you learned from your audience and tailor the question accordingly for them, but these simple questions capture the essence of what you need to find out from your prospect.